The Beatles - Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo
Starr, John Lennon), in 1964, performing on The
Ed Sullivan Show promoting their first U.S. hit
song, "I Want To Hold Your Hand," and
ushering in the "British Invasion" of
American popular music.

Originally, The Beatles' work focused around themes
of love akin to that of a boy who had just fallen
in love, as typified by their performances of songs
on The Ed Sullivan Show, such as "All My Loving",
"She Loves You" and "I Want To Hold
Your Hand".

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A Brief History

John Lennon formed
a skiffle group, The Quarry Men, in March 1957.
On July 6 that year, he met Paul McCartney whilst
playing at the Woolton Parish fete and the two
were soon playing music together. In 1958 the
young guitarist George Harrison joined the group,
which played under a variety of names. In 1960
they travelled to Hamburg (particularly the infamous
"Kaiserkeller" club) where they finally
became the Beatles. Stuart Sutcliffe was part
of the group in 1960-61 and influenced their appearance
and sense of style. Allan Williams was their manager
until 1962 when Brian Epstein took over the role.

In 1962, after having been rejected
by every other record company in England, they
joined EMI's Parlophone label. Their drummer for
the past two years, Pete Best, was fired in favour
of the more experienced Ringo Starr. The new line-up
recorded their first broadcast interview on the
hospital station Radio Clatterbridge. The Beatles'
first sessions in September 1962 produced a minor
UK hit, "Love Me Do", which likely charted
partly because Epstein ordered a large quantity
of the singles from EMI for his family's record
stores. ("Love Me Do" subsequently reached
the top of US singles chart in May 1964.) This
was quickly followed by the recording of their
first album, Please Please Me, a mix of original
songs by Lennon and McCartney along with some
covers.

Beatlemania began in Britain on
13 October 1963 with a televised appearance at
the London Palladium. Although the band was experiencing
great popularity on the record charts in England
by early 1963, Parlophone's American counterpart,
Capitol Records (which was owned by EMI), refused
to issue the singles Love Me Do, Please Please
Me and From Me To You in the United States, the
reason being that no British act had ever made
any impact on an American audience.

VeeJay Records, a small Chicago
label, is said to have been pressured into issuing
these singles as part of a deal for the rights
to another performer's masters. Art Roberts, music
director of Chicago powerhouse radio station WLS,
placed "Please Please Me" into rotation
in late February 1963, making it the first and
last time a Beatles' record was heard on American
radio until December 1963 (it lasted a few weeks
at the bottom of the charts this first time around).
Veejay issued a corresponding album that summer
in America, which also went nowhere.

In August 1963 the Swan label (partly
owned by Dick Clark) tried again with the Beatles'
"She Loves You", which again failed
to receive airplay. A testing of the song on his
TV show American Bandstand resulted in laughter
and scorn from American teenagers when they saw
the group's unusual haircuts. Meanwhile, it is
said that British airline stewardesses and others
were bringing single copies of Beatles records
into major US cities like New York, Chicago and
Los Angeles to share with friends. In December
1963, during the weeks immediately following the
Kennedy assassination, their music began slowly
filling the American airwaves.

Beatlemania exploded in the United
States with three national television appearances
by the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February,
16 February and 23 February 1964. The pop-music
band became a worldwide phenomenon with worshipful
fans and angry denunciations by cultural observers
and established performers such as Frank Sinatra,
sometimes on grounds of the music (which was thought
crude and unmusical) or their appearance (their
hair was considered 'scandalously long').

Some commentators have speculated
that after the assassination of John F. Kennedy
a depressed America was searching for a way out
of gloom and despair. So in effect, the Beatles
were in the right place at the right time (with
a unique combination of talent and stage presence)
to provide an enthusiastic jolt to a saddened
nation.

In 1964 they held the top five
places on the Billboard Hot 100, a feat that has
never been repeated.

In 1965 they were instated as Members
of the Order of the British Empire. Lennon and
Harrison began experimenting with LSD that year
and McCartney would do likewise near the end of
1966. In July 1966 Lennon caused a backlash against
The Beatles when he claimed during an interview
that Christianity was dying, quipping that the
Beatles were "more popular than Jesus."
Eventually he apologised at a Chicago press conference,
acquiescing to objections by many religious groups
including the Holy See as Beatles' records were
banned or burned across the American South along
with threats from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.
The Beatles, early 1967.The Beatles performed
their last concert before paying fans in Candlestick
Park in San Francisco on 29 August 1966. From
this time until the group dissolved in early 1970,
the Beatles concentrated on making some of the
most remarkable recorded pop music of the 20th
century. The group's compositions and musical
experiments raised their artistic reputations
while they retained their tremendous popularity.
The Beatles' financial fortunes took a turn for
the worse however, when their manager Brian Epstein
died in 1967 and the band's affairs began to unravel.
That same year, The Beatles became the first band
ever globally broadcast on television but the
members were drifting apart. Their final live
performance was on the roof at the Apple studios
in London in January 1969 during the difficult
"Get Back" sessions (later used as a
basis for the Let It Be album). Also in 1969,
largely due to McCartney's efforts, they recorded
their final album, Abbey Road. The band officially
broke up in 1970 and a few months later Let It
Be followed as their last commercial album release.
Any hopes of a reunion were crushed when Lennon
was assassinated in 1980. However, a virtual reunion
occurred in 1995 with the release of two original
Lennon recordings which had the additional contributions
of the remaining Beatles mixed in to create two
hit singles: "Free as a Bird" and "Real
Love". Three volumes (six CDs in total) of
unreleased material and studio out-takes were
also released, as well as a documentary and television
miniseries, in a project known as The Beatles
Anthology.